When comics almost died Readers, censors, and innovation

Streaming video - 2014

Sixty years ago, three events endangered comics: the publication of psychiatrist Fredric Wertham’s book “Seduction of the Innocent” which blamed juvenile delinquency on reading comics; the US Senate hearings on the relationship between comic books and juvenile delinquency; and the development of the Comics Code Authority, a censorship body that restricted content. Carol Tilley, whose research into Wertham’s revealed the doctor fabricated some of his findings, takes viewers behind the scenes, to reveal this fateful year in comics history. Learn untold stories of Wertham, Senator Estes Kefauver and the kids who tried to fight the tide of anti-comics momentum.